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The case of David Brandrick, can be read on the Foul Murders page, and is as nasty a murder as you can you get. Pawnbrokers never get a good press, do they, but non of them deserved the end dished out to this one in Bilston, one Mr Baggot. Brandrick got his just desserts, and Bilston was free of at least one vicious villian. Before he was hanged though, he made a confession, not a surprise, many did, but thiis one caused a bit of a row. The Prison Chaplain, The Rev. Vincent, even though he wasn't of the Catholic faith, agreed to keep it all secret, until after Brandricks suspended demise. Normaly this wouldn't have been a problem, but there were two other men, who had taken part in the robbery/murder, and who were due to hang with him. David Brandricks confession, clearly only implicated them in the robbery, the murder he said, was done by him, and him alone. The defence Lawyer for the other two men, got wind of this secret confession, and appealed for clemancy for his clients. This,once the Court had heard the facts confirmed, was granted, which is why Brandrick was so upset when he discovered, just before 8 am on the day of his execution, that he would go to meet his maker alone. Also in the confession, was the truth of who had cruelly murdered Walter Piper, the boatman from Coseley, in April, the previous year. ( see. Black Country Unsolved Murders.) Piper had described one of the men who attacked him as very tall, and David Brandrick, over 6 feet tall, was well known locally as " Long Davie ". At least the harmless Walter Piper finally got a bit of justice, and 20 year old David Brandrick, living up to his nick-name, got a well deserved elongated neck.

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A wonderful thing is work, I could watch it all day. ( See my Blog entry )

I do get asked, for any additional information on some folk who ended up in this fashion. There isn't much to find on David Brandrick, who never made it to his 21st birthday, nor, in what is there, is there any indication of why he was such a vicious individual. His father, Enoch Brandrick, was born in Stoke-on-Trent, and his mother, the former Francis Hessell, came from Stone, near Stafford. David, the eldest of 8 children, was born in Bloomfield, Tipton, in January,1842, his siblings birth's reflecting how Enoch travelled, to find work as a Miner. ( Ocker Hill, West Bromwich, and Bilston ) In May,1861, the entire family were living at 25, Stafford Street, Bilston. David Brandrick, had by this time, already committed a Murder, that of Walter Piper, a 63 year old boatman. Contrary to press reports, his stated trade was that of a Puddler, ( not a miner ) at a local Iron Works, and it was, by the standards of the time, a fairly well paid job. His father was recorded as a shaft sinker, but his sons mainly worked in the Iron trade. He was almost certainly a heavy drinker, not unusual for the period, but thats no excuse for battering a 63 year old, or for strangling a man in his late 70s, just for the price of another drink. One things for sure, he died a very disappointed young man, as he fully expected his two accomplices, to be either side of him on the Gallows. The crowd, which had begun to gather outside the Prison in Stafford on the Friday evening, was estimated, to be bigger than that which watched William Palmer launched into eternity. ( They were of course expecting a triple hanging, and it was the same hangman as well ) It was reported, that Brandrick began to rant and rave at the crowd, George Smith cutting him short with a rather curt, " Goodbye ", and then swiftly pulling the lever of the trap. A few jerks, a gasp, and David Brandrick was no more, a young man who really deserved to be hanged twice.

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A wonderful thing is work, I could watch it all day. ( See my Blog entry )